Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1887-12-06

Our labor is honorable in the eyes of every
Amer lean citizen and is entitled to the Ut.
most regard There are 2,623,0S9 persons
employed In such manufacturing industries
as are claimed 10 be benefited by a'high
tariff To these the appeal is made to save
their employment and maintain their wages
by resisting change. There should be no
disposition to answer such suggestions
by the allegation that they are in
minority among those who labor. and
therefore should forego an advantage, in
the interest of low prices for the ma
jority, and their compensation, as 1t
may be affected by the operation of tariff
laws, should at all times be scrupulously
kept in view and yet with slight re Election
are consumers with the rest that they too,
have their own wants and those of their
families to supply from their earnings and
that tho price of the necessaries of life, as
well as the amount of their wages, will regu-
late the measure of their welfare and com
| fort.
But the reduction Of taxation de manded
should be so measured as not 10 Decessitate
or Justify either the lose Of employment by
the working man nor the lessening of his
wages. Nor can the worker 10 manufacI-
ures fail to understand that while high
! tariff is claimed 10 be necessary to allow the
payment of remunerative wages, it certain
| " results in very large increase in The
price of nearly all sorts of manufactures.
He receives his wages, and perhaps before
he reaches his home Is obliged, in purchase
for family use of an article which embraces
his own labor, to return in the payment Of
the increase 10 price which the tariff per-
mits, the hard earned compensation ofmaDy
days of toll.
The farmer and tire agricul;urist who
manufacture nothing, but who pay the in
creased price which the tariff imposes upon
all he wears and upon all he owns, except
the increase of his hocks and herds and such
things as his husbandry produces from the
SOIL is told that high duty on imported
wool is necessary in order that the price OF
| his wool may be increased. They Of
course are not reminded that the farmer
| who has no sheep is by this scheme obliged,
In his purchases of clothing and wooden
goods. to pay tribute to his fellow farmer
as we'll as TO the manufacturer and mer-
chant; nor is any mention made of the fact
that the sheep-owners themselves aud their
| households, must wear clothing manufac
tured from the wool they sell at tariff pri
ces, and thus as consumers N ust return their
share of this Increased price to the trades.
man.
| The President argues for reduction on
wool and wooden goods, and gives his rea.
sons why the removal or reduction of the
duty on wool should be included in reyi-
sion of The tariff law.
Uuder our present laws, he says, more
than four thousand articles are subject to
duty. Many of these do not in any way
compete with our own manufactures, and
many are hardly worth attention as subjects
of revenue. A considerable reduction can
be made in the aggregate, by adding them
to the free list. The taxation of luxuries
presents no features of hardship but the
necessaries of life used and consumed by all
the people should be greatly cheapsned.
Both of the great political parties now re
demned the condition Of our laws which
permit the collection from the people of I'M
necessary revenue, and have, in the most
solemn manner, promised its correction !;
and neither as citizens or partieans are our
countrymeD in mood TO condone the dc
liberate violation of these pledges.
The simple and plain duty which we owe
| the people is to reduce taxation TO the ne
cessary expenses of an economical operation
Of the Government, and to restore to the
business of the country the money which we
hold in the Treasury through the perversion
Of governmental powers.
The Constitution provides that the Presi-
dent shall, from time 10 time, give TO The
Congress information of the state Of the
Union," but am 80 much impressed with
the paramount importance Of the subject to
which this communication has thus far be en-
devoted, that I shall forego the addition of
any other topic.